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A couple of A's notes--they've traded Travis Blackley to the Astros (a couple of days ago, I guess, but I just saw it today) and Scott Sizemore has no luck as he's out for the year AGAIN with a torn knee ligament. Andy Parrino has been called up to take his place for you fantasy junkies who need 4 at bats a week from a crappy hitting middle infielder.

I was watching some recaps this morning, which MLB.com makes so wonderfully easy, and I heard one of the Braves announcers call Evan Gattis "El Oso Blanco" ("The White Bear") which I think is just a fantastic nickname. I really hope that sticks and he continues being a quality ball player.

His nickname would be great strike in the battle against nicknames that simply tack on a "y" or a "s" on to someone's last name.

For a while, people were calling Carlos Gonzalez "Little Pony," which was a wonderful nickname created by the now-departed Brad Hawpe. You can still hear the Rockies announcers using that on some old highlight clips. But it's faded away in favor of the much more obvious "CarGo."

El Oso Blanco is a great nickname. I hope Gattis makes it big just to keep that nickname around.

We're not completely bereft of good nicknames, though. Off the top of my head there's Panda Sandoval, The Flyin' Hawaiian, Pronk, Joey Bats. And some OK nicknames we don't even think of as nicknames, e.g. BJ "Bossman Jr." Upton and Gerald "Buster" Posey.

I do think that the habit of shortening names a la "A-Rod" and "CarGo" is BS, though. Give em real nicknames, damnit!

People in the media need to take the responsibility for this, and put more effort into promulgating nicknames. "Splendid Splinter", "Say Hey Kid" etc. were drummed into people's brains by beat writers and magazine writers. If you let people who aren't professional wordsmiths create nicknames, you end up with "A-Rod" and "J-Roll" and "CP3".

I was watching SportsCenter this morning (yeah, I know), hoping against hope for a few baseball highlights, and I saw a Brooklyn Nets summary in which I believe they referred to Deron Williams as D-Will. Really?

I was watching SportsCenter this morning (yeah, I know), hoping against hope for a few baseball highlights, and I saw a Brooklyn Nets summary in which I believe they referred to Deron Williams as D-Will. Really?

I hope you learned your lesson?

I'm at the stage with ESPN that I am with sports radio. I feel a little bad being critical because I have not watched/listened to it in so long. I mean maybe Baseball Tonight has become fantastic or something but a few years back I just stopped bothering (I suspect that coincides with the launch of MLBN) and now I just can't be bothered.

There is no reason to watch Sports Center. If you want highlights from a particular league, each major league has it's own network and if you want team specific highlights, websites and tablet apps are far better.

For a while, people were calling Carlos Gonzalez "Little Pony," which was a wonderful nickname created by the now-departed Brad Hawpe. You can still hear the Rockies announcers using that on some old highlight clips.

I think it was Royals fans that came up with the nickname "Country Breakfast" for Billy Butler. It seemed like the media and the team didn't really want to call him that and they came up with their own boring nickname that I can't recall, but finally had to admit the fans wanted "Country Breakfast."

This Blue Jays starting pitching hasn't looked as good as we thought it might so far.

With Johnson just getting hooked in the second, only Dickey is averaging more than 5 innings per start, and he's at 5 1/3. It's not the way they would've wanted the first two weeks to go, but it's still just the first two weeks.

Miguel Cabrera just stole third without Josh Johnson even throwing to the plate. Johnson stepped off the rubber but there wasn't even a throw to third.

I wanted to say "Still not as impressive as this" and link to Jose Molina's steal of second on Monday but MLB.com doesn't have that as a highlight. How the hell do you not have a highlight clip available for Jose Freaking Molina pulling off a straight steal?

With Johnson just getting hooked in the second, only Dickey is averaging more than 5 innings per start, and he's at 5 1/3. It's not the way they would've wanted the first two weeks to go, but it's still just the first two weeks.

Given that this turn of events would almost certainly tank baseball in Toronto for another 20 years, no I would not find that to be hilarious. Now, if Dickey got hurt and needed surgery on his arm, Buehrle retired midseason to go play with his dogs, and Reyes turned into John McDonald, that might be funny. But a Marlins-esque demolition of this team in year one The Golden Age of Contending and Not Finishing Fourth™ would likely destroy professional baseball in Canada.

Ken Rosenthal says the Mariners are close to acquiring Aaron Harang. It needs to get approved by the Commissioner's office because over $1M in cash is in the deal. No other details.

The Rockies tweeted that they have acquired Steven Hensley from the Mariners for Harang and cash considerations. Hensley is a RHP, 26 years old, got his head handed to him in his first go-round at AAA last year.